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How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!

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Vegetarian Spring Rolls

Today I introduce you to Homemade Vegetarian Spring Rolls. The ingredients are tofu, carrot, mushroom and some seasoning.

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Sometimes we feel frying is too much work but these spring rolls are out of this world! It is worth the little bit of extra effort. The spring rolls have a nice crunchy wrap and smooth and flavorful filling. They are irresistible! Plus, I use a plastic bag to mix the filling so that makes cleanup easier. 

On the PDF recipe, I explain how to wrap the filling step by step. It is not difficult. You should already be used to it when you roll a second spring roll. If you have children, it may be fun to roll the spring rolls up with them. I used to do that when I was little.

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Vegetarian Spring Rolls

The recipe is

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Process drained tofu in a food processor. Put all ingredients in a plastic zipper bag and mix well. On a wrapper, squeeze the filling out directly from the plastic bag and roll up. (To store, before frying put them in a plastic zipper bag carefully and keep in the freezer.) Fry until it is nice golden brown.

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Ingredients (20 spring rolls)
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

20 Spring Roll Wraps

1 pack Tofu

4 Mushrooms

3 Cabbage Leaves

1 Carrot

1 tsp. Grated Ginger

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Egg

1 Tbsp. Flour plus 1 Tbsp. Water for slurry

Vegetable Oil for frying

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Vegetarian Spring Rolls


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Yummy & Fluffy Fried Tofu (Vegetarian / Gluten-free)

Today I introduce you to “Fried Tofu” which is called “Gan-Modoki” in Japanese.

I am sure this is going to be your new healthy delicious tofu dish!! During the cooking preparation I process the tofu, so it has a very soft and silken texture. The seasonings are soy sauce, ginger and salt so it is incredibly flavorful. Therefore, this tofu dish even makes people who don’t like tofu very much enjoy it because they don’t think it is made from tofu!

The recipe is:

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Drain tofu, smooth the tofu with a food processor, mix with vegetables and seasonings, and fry.

*Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Yummy & Fluffy Fried Tofu

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You can enjoy the fresh and hot fried tofu itself. Also it is great to simmer it in chicken soup with some vegetables!

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To store, place the fried tofu in a plastic bag and keep in the freezer.

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Please do not drain the used oil in the sink. Put some kitchen papers in a can or a jar which you don’t need and pour the cooled used oil in. Throw it out as regular garbage.

Ingredients (12 balls)
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

1 pack (14 oz.) Extra Firm Tofu

1 small Carrot

4 Mushrooms (any kind)

1 tsp. Grated Ginger

1 tsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

1 tsp. Salt

1 Egg

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

2 Tbsp. Corn Starch

Vegetable Oil for frying

*Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Yummy & Fluffy Fried Tofu


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Japanese Fried Chicken with Egg Drop Dashi

Today I introduce you to “Japanese Fried Chicken with Egg Drop Dashi”.

This is a very delicious dish and is a popular dish in Japan. It is fried chicken breast in an egg-drop Dashi soup. Japanese fried food has very thin batter and a crunchy texture. We add the soup to the chicken right before we eat it so that we can enjoy the flavorful soup and crunchy fried chicken together. Mostly the dish is put on steamed rice so it is called Donburi. It provides carbohydrate and protein in one bowl so we usually have this during the busy lunch time.

The recipe is

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(Fried Chicken)

Season a chicken breast with salt and pepper and batter with flour, beaten egg and bread crumbs. (See the picture, I sometimes use a supermarket flyers or newspaper to batter with flour and bread crumbs. This makes easy to cleanup!)

Fry about 5 minutes on each side. Slice and place on a plate.

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(Egg-Drop Sauce)

Heat Dashi stock, sugar, cooking Sake, soy sauce and Mirin in a pan and pour beaten egg in the boiled soup.

Pour the egg-drop dashi soup on the fried chicken and sprinkle with green onion (to taste) right before serving.

*Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Japanese Fried Chicken with Egg Drop Dashi

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I used bonito dashi stock but you can use any kind of stock. This is a Japanese style dish so It would be better to use bonito, shiitake mushroom, kelp, or anchovy dashi stock if it’s possible.

If you frequently want to add chopped green onion with a minimum of fuss to your dishes, here is a tip to store the chopped green onion. When you have time, chop some washed green onion, dry with paper towels, put in a plastic zipper bag and keep it in the freezer. Use within a month. You can add some to your dishes without defrosting.

Ingredients (servings 2)
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

1 Piece Chicken Breast

Some Salt and Pepper

2 Tbsp. Flour

2 Eggs (total)

3 Tbsp. Panko Bread Crumbs Japanese Style

150 ml Dashi Stock (any kind)

½ Tbsp. Sugar

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp. Mirin (Sweet Cooking Rice Wine)

Vegetable Oil for frying

Some Chopped Green Onion to taste

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Japanese Fried Chicken with Egg Drop Dashi


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The Best Salmon Recipe! Juicy and Tender “Steamed Salmon with Butter” (Gluten-Free)

Today I introduce you to Steamed Salmon with Butter. The dish is very tasty and is great for fancy dinners, but it is so easy because it is cooked in the oven. You can do other things while the meal cooks. Plus the cleanup is also easy because the salmon is wrapped with foil. Best of all, because the salmon is wrapped and cooked, the dish has great flavor and a very tender and juicy texture, which is very difficult to achieve when salmon is baked.

Salmon is high in omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), and high in vitamins. More important still, salmon’s pink color is from Carotenoid Astaxanthin which is a very strong antioxidant material. However, today we see mostly farm-raised salmon in stores and the salmon may be bred to make their color brighter. So you should choose wild salmon if you can.

The recipe is very easy.

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Preheat oven to 400 °F. Place some sliced onion on greased foil. Put salmon on the onion. Season with salt and pepper, and put some butter on the salmon. Add any side vegetables you like. Cook in the oven for 25~30 minutes (depending on the thickness of salmon).  I recommend thinner salmon for all salmon recipes because it is easy to cook through evenly and quickly.

*Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Steamed Salmon With Butter

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Ingredients (servings 1)

1 reasonably thin Salmon fillet

½ Onion

1 tsp. Butter or Margarine

Salt and Pepper

Vegetables (such as carrots, broccoli, bell peppers to taste)

*Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Steamed Salmon With Butter

Here is “Steamed Salmon with Butter” recipe video on YouTube:


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Very Flavorful “Authentic Tofu Miso Soup” (vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free)

Today I will teach you “How to make Authentic Homemade Miso Soup” with recipe video and detailed PDF direction. It is very easy to cook and has great flavor and wonderful taste, but I am sure you have never tasted authentic miso soup at most of restaurants in the US.

One of tips for cooking miso soup is to use great Dashi stock. I use different Dashi stocks depending on ingredients in my miso soup. I like to use bonito Dashi stock for vegetable miso soup. I tend to use kelp or anchovy Dashi stock for seaweed and seafood miso soup. Sometimes I use blended Dashi stocks which is very flavorful! If you follow a vegan diet, you can use kelp Dashi stock. I have some homemade Dashi stock recipes in my blog.
Here is “Kelp Dashi Stock” recipe post:  Homemade Kelp Dashi stock / Salted Kelp (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)
Here is “Anchovy Dashi Stock” recipe post: Homemade Anchovy Dashi Stock (Gluten-Free)

But you can also use instant Dashi stock powder to save time. There are a lot of great ones in many Asian markets and also on Amazon.

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Bonito Dashi powder              Kelp Dashi Powder

I want to tell you one more tip to cook delicious miso soup. Basically I use 2 Tbsp. of miso paste for 2 cups of Dashi stock. But you can use less or more miso paste. I tend to use a little bit more miso paste than 2 Tbsp. for vegetable miso soup. I use less than 2 Tbsp. of miso paste for seafood miso soup because I can enjoy the seafood flavor!

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Miso soup is an important dish in the Japanese diet. Miso (Soybean paste) is a traditional fermented food product. It is a very nutritious food, and Japanese say it may help keep the doctor away. In fact, there have been many studies of the beneficial effects of Miso on human health. I like to eat miso soup for breakfast more than anything else because I feel energy, my stomach feels comfortable and my head becomes clear. I think my body gets ready for school or work when I have miso soup in the morning.

In this recipe I use tofu. I like tofu miso soup because it is the quickest and easiest miso soup recipe! You can use any vegetables such as onion, potato, spinach, Daikon radish, mushrooms, carrot, bean sprouts, and so on. You can also use any seafood and seaweed for miso soup such as Wakame seaweed, clam, freshwater clam, oyster, lobster, and so on.

The recipe is very easy.

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Boil Dashi stock and cut tofu. Dissolve miso paste.

Ingredients (servings 2)
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

7 oz. (1/2 pack) Tofu

2 cups Dashi Stock (any kind is okay)
(recommended instant kelp Dashi powder)Kelp Dashi Powder
(Recommended instant bonito Dashi powder)Ajinomoto – Hon Dashi

2 Tbsp. ORGANIC Miso Paste

Some minced Green Onion (to taste)

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Tofu Miso Soup

Recipe Video on YouTube:


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Sesame Tofu (vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free)

“Sesame Tofu” is not a traditional Japanese dish. I have never had “Sesame Tofu” in Japan. When I had “Sesame Tofu” at a Chinese restaurant in the U.S., I was amazed at how delicious it was! So I tried to cook it myself.

This sesame tofu recipe is perfect! It is not too sweet and not too greasy, so it is in keeping with my dishes. It is a gluten-free and vegan dish! Delicious!! In addition, tofu has a lot of nutrition. As you know, tofu is high in great protein so it is often used as a meat substitute for vegans and vegetarians. Also tofu itself is low calorie (33 kcal / 2 oz.) so it is good food for people who care about their diet.

In this recipe 7 ounces (1/2 pack) of tofu can serve 2 people. You may think it is too small an amount compared to many Chinese restaurants in the U.S. In Japan, people traditionally eat many dishes containing soy beans. For a balanced-diet, which I highly recommend on the post You can Eat Anything You Want! But…, I suggest eating 1/4 pack of tofu every day depending on your other protein sources. If you make this recipe as a main dish, you might want to add some small side dishes to your meal.

The recipe is easy. We can cook with one pan.

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Dry tofu and dredge in corn starch.

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Cook and season.

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Ingredients (servings 2)
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

7 oz. (½ pack) Firm Tofu

¼ cup Corn Starch

1 Tbsp. Pure Sesame Oil

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Sugar

2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

1 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

1 Tbsp. White Roasted Sesame Seeds

Some Chopped Green Onion (to taste)

 

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF:Sesame-Tofu


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Green Beans with Sweet Sesame Dressing (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

This is a traditional Japanese side dish which is called “Goma-Ae” in Japanese. The dish dresses boiled fresh green beans with sweet sesame dressing. The sesame dressing contains ground white sesame, soy sauce and sugar. It is a healthy, delicious, easy and very quick to prepare dish.

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In Japan we usually use a traditional Japanese mortar and pestle for grinding white sesame. Ground sesame makes the dish very flavorful and it is easy to eat. If you have a spice grinder, you can use it. If you don’t have either a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle you can put sesame seeds in a zipper bag and beat them with a rolling pin until they are ground.

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The basic arrangement for many Japanese meals is called “Ichi-juu, San-sai,” which consists of one bowl of cooked rice, one kind of soup and three vegetables or fish small portion dishes. So this dish is a very common dish in the Japanese diet.

When you want to add a vegetable dish to your meal or in your lunch box, this is a great choice. Also, you can use any kind of vegetable with this dressing, such as boiled spinach, boiled carrot, boiled broccoli and so on.

The recipe is very quick. It takes only 10 minutes.

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Mix the sauce ingredients, boil fresh green beans and dress.

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You can store this dish in the refrigerator for 3 days. If you want to store longer, please dry the boiled green beans very well before dressing in the sauce and transfer them to a clean container. You can then keep it in the refrigerator for 5 days.

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Enjoy this new healthy side dish!!

Ingredients (servings 2)
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

¾~1 pound Fresh Green Beans

2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

2 Tbsp. Sugar

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

4 Tbsp. White Roasted Sesame Seeds

Water for boiling green beans

1 Tbsp. Salt for boiling green beans

{Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF}: green-beans-with-sweet-sesame-dressing

{Recipe Video on YouTube}


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Homemade Chicken Teriyaki (Gluten-Free)

Today I will introduce you to “Homemade Chicken Teriyaki”.

This is a main dish I highly recommend. It is a very popular dish all over the world because it is very flavorful and extremely delicious!!

However, in my opinion in the U.S. the taste (from the sauce) is slightly different from Japanese Teriyaki. In the U.S. the Teriyaki sauce is too sweet by Japanese standards.

I want you to be able to taste “Authentic Teriyaki,” which has a great taste and is not greasy. And also I want to show you how to cook juicy chicken using a pan. The tip is pan-frying and steaming. This makes the chicken soft, juicy and perfectly moist.

The recipe is very easy. It takes less than 20 minutes.

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Cook chicken and simmer it with seasonings.

Ingredients (servings 2)
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

2 pieces Chicken Thigh

3 Tbsp. Cooking Sake (total)

2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

1 tsp. Sugar

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Homemade Chicken-Teriyaki

 

 

Recipe Video on YouTube “How to Cook Chicken Teriyaki”


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Pan-Fried Udon Noodles

Today I introduce you to a very popular homemade Japanese dish: “Pan-Fried Udon Noodles,” which is called “Yaki-Udon” in Japanese. The ingredients are cooked Udon noodles, sautéed vegetables and turkey sausage seasoned with soy sauce. It is good for a quick meal because you can get carb, protein and vitamins from one dish. And it is very delicious!!

The recipe is very simple and quick. If you sometimes cook pasta dishes in your house, the cooking process will be familiar to you.

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Sauté turkey sausage and vegetables.
Boil Udon noodles.
Dress all with seasonings.

You can use any vegetables and meats. And also you can cut the ingredients however you want. If you like to eat chunky vegetables, you can cut into big pieces. if you or your family don’t like vegetables very much, you can mince well and stir in as a seasoning on the Udon noodles.

Enjoy your-own-“Yaki-Udon”!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

1 bunch (3.1 oz.) Organic Udon Noodle

4 Cabbage Leaves

2 Turkey Sausages

2 Shiitake Mushrooms

¼ Green Bell Pepper

1 Onion

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

3 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp. Pure Sesame Oil

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: pan-fried-udon-noodles


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Egg and Vegetables Sushi Roll (Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

Today, I will introduce you to a great homemade sushi roll, the “Egg and Vegetable Sushi Roll.” For filling I used egg, spinach, carrot and Shiitake mushrooms. I seasoned the filling deliciously so you don’t need to put it in soy sauce when you eat.

In the PDF recipe, I explain with easy instructions how to make sushi rolls with a great shape and I provide you with detailed pictures (and some special tips) so you can do it even if this is your first time making a sushi roll.

On YouTube recipe video, you can see how I actually do.

The recipe is

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Cook rice and make sushi rice

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Cook fillings

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Roll the ingredients with the sushi rice and dried seaweed.

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You may think making sushi is too hard until you learn the tricks to doing it well. It is definitely worth it to learn. However, if you want you can skip the rice cooking process if you can get prepared steamed rice. And also you can pick easy ingredients for sushi fillings such as avocado, cucumber, smoked salmon, Sashimi and so on. This egg and vegetables filling recipe is actually what I grew up with. I think it is the best.

First, you wash dried rice like you wash vegetables before you cook it to get rid of dust and to polish the rice. Polishing rice makes it digest smoothly when we eat it. And also washing rice brings us great taste and great final presentation. Lately, some people say we don’t need to wash rice as hard as we used to because the technology of rice polish is getting better. In addition, if you use no-wash rice “Musen-Mai”, you don’t need to wash. You can also use brown rice and multigrain rice instead of white rice if you want.

Lately, I made “Thin-Fried-Egg Roll Sushi” instead of wrapping with dried seaweed. This is also delicious!!

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For making any sushi roll, you should get Makisu which is a bamboo mat to roll sushi. You can get Japanese Makisu: Bamboo Sushi Mat Makisu from Amazon.

{Ingredients ( about 15 pieces)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

[Filling]

2 Shiitake Mushrooms

½ Carrot

10 leaves Spinach (frozen one is okay)

2/3 cup Kelp Dashi Stock (any kind is okay)

2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

1 Tbsp. Sugar

1 Egg + Pinch Salt + Non-Stick Cooking Spray

[Wrapper]

1-1/4 cup Premium Rice, Medium Grain

5-inch × 5-inch piece Dashi Dried Kelp

2 cup Water

50 ml Rice Vinegar

1 Tbsp. Sugar

1 tsp. Salt

2 pieces Dried Seaweed Wrap for Sushi

[Tool]

Bamboo Sushi Mat Makisu (Sushi Roll Mat)

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: egg-and-vegetables-sushi-roll

Here is “Kelp Dashi Stock” Recipe in PDF: Kelp Dashi stock

The Recipe Video on YouTube